WFP Lao PDR Country Brief, September 2019

In Numbers

US$ 1.58 million six-month (Oct 2019 – March 2020) net funding requirements

493.693 mt of food assistance distributed

120,690 people assisted

Operational Updates

• WFP provided support to the Government to conduct an impact assessment after the recent floods in six central and southern provinces of Laos. The final report is expected to be submitted in mid-October and is set to inform the further recovery actions.

• The Government plans to conduct an after-action review of the logistics and coordination of the recent flood response. The flogs at the end of August affected an estimated 397,000 people, with 88,000 persons displaced and 14 losing their lives. The review, which WFP has offered to support, is tentatively scheduled to take place in late October in Champassak Province.

• WFP organised a farmer nutrition training for 24 village facilitators and nine district officers in Ngommalath District, Khammouane Province as part of the nutrition support project for flood-affected populations. The training consists of nutrition information and dietary diversity, topics that the participants will convey to their communities in further sessions.

• As a part of the handover of the school feeding programme to the Government, WFP has completed orientation and planning workshops in all seven WFPassisted provinces. The Ministry of Education and Sports has allocated a state budget to support the programme in 515 schools which have already been handed over in July 2019 (this is in nine districts across three provinces which have now been handed over).

• WFP is working with the Southern Laos Food and Nutrition Security and Market Linkages Programme’ to rehabilitate access roads in seven villages across three districts of Xekong and Saravane Provinces. This IFADfunded programme will benefit 641 households and 3,599 people (of which 1,710 are women). Community members working on the rehabilitation will receive a total of USD 34,000 as conditional payments for their labour.

• WFP organised a training in Oudomxay on the installation of mobile storage units (temporary warehouses with the capacity to store and sort food supplies and relief items). Two more trainings will be in held in Khammouane and Champassak Province in October.